Improvement in ships  knees



W. MREHOUSE.

Ships Knees. No.15l3'09, Patented May 26,1874.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.4

WILLIAM MOREHOUSE, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT iN sHlPs KNEES.

Specification forming part ol' Letters Patent No. l5 1,309, dated May26, 1874: application filed February 5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, VILLIAM M oREHoUsE, of the city of Buffalo, in thecounty of Erie and State of N ew York, have invented an ImprovedShip-Knee, as a new article of manufacture, of which the following is aspecification:

Previous to my invention ship knees have generally been construct-edeither entirely of wood, or of a wooden body provided with iron sideplates, or of an iron bar bent into the proper shape. The ship-kneesconstructed of wood or partly of wood, in order to be sniiicientlystrong must be made comparatively large and take up much space, therebyreducing the storage-capacity of the vessel, while the iron kneesconstructed as heretofore are very liable to break at the 'angle atwhich the strains are concentrated, and are therefore required to bemade very heavy, which is objectionable in ship-building.

The object of my invention Yis to produce a strong and light knee,suitable for wooden as well, as iron vessels, boats, Snc.; and itconsists of a ship-knee made ot' wrought angleiron, and provided with acorner-brace welded to the body of the knee, as hereinafter fullydescribed.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l isa perspective view ot' myimproved ship-knee. Fig. 2 is a similar view, showing a slightlymodifiedform of the corner-brace. Fig. 3 represents a bar of wrought angle-iron,ready to be bent into the angular shape of the knee. Fig. 4 representsthe corner-brace placed upon the body of the knee previous to welding itthereto.

Like letters designate like parts in each of the guress The body of theknee is formed of a straight bar, A, of wrought angle-iron, of therequired length. The ange portion a of the same is provided with holesfor the passage of the fastening bolts or rivets, by which the knee issecured to the beams and side posts of the vessel. The web portion a issheared 0E toward the ends, as shown at b, in order to render the kneeas light as possible. The web a is notched in the middle, as shown at cin Fig. 3, so that when the bar is bent to the angular form ofthe kneethe edges of the notch c will overlap each other, as shown by dottedlines in Fig. 4, when they are firmly welded together. d represents thebrace of iron, arranged across the corner of the knee, and welded to theweb a thereof, so as to strengthen the same. rlhis brace may be made inthe form ot' a triangular plate, as shown in Figs. l and 4, where itsinner edges are welded to the web a', while its outer edge is preferably made curved, so as to join the edges ofthe web without4 break; or itmay consist of a straight bar having its ends welded to the web a oftheknee, as represented in Fig. 2.

My improved ship-knee, constructed as above described, possesses thefollowing advantages over others, as heretofore constructed: It is muchlighter, stronger, and cheaper, and obstructs less of the storage-roomofthe ship.

I claim as my invention- A ship-knee, consisting of the wroughtangle-iron A, strengthened by the corner-brace d, as herein shown anddescribed, as a new article of manufacture. y

WILLIAM MOREHOUSE.

Witnesses:

JN0. J. BONNER, HENRY BROWN.

